From nightmare to bliss
by DustRiver98
Summary: Annabeth teaches Percy how to shoot arrows as something strange happens. And its Aphrodites fault. One thing leads to another and soon Percy and Annabeth are on a quest together with a new Half - Blood.
1. Chapter 1

Annabeth´s POV

"No Percy." I said annoyed. "You hold your bow wrong. Keep it higher." I tried to teach Percy how to shot an arrow into the target, but he was hopeless. I never saw someone who was that bad. We were for two hours in the arena now, but it didn´t help anything at all.

"Okay." He replied, lifted his bow further up and shot an arrow at the target. Of course the arrow didn´t hit the target, but Clarisse´s butt.

"AAHH!" She screamed and turned around. "Jackson!" She stomped towards him, her face was scarlet.

"You shot me you idiot!"

"Yeah, sorry Clarisse. I didn´t mean to hit you." Percy said sheepishly. Clarisse was about to punch him, when Chiron came galloped towards us.

"Clarisse, can you please give the new campers a tour? I haven´t got time now." Then he saw the arrow in her butt. "Who did this?" Before Clarisse could answer Chiron looked at Percy and seemed to understand.

"Ah, I see, Annabeth, you have a lot of work to do with Percy." I sighed.

"Yes, I know."

"Hey!" Percy protested. "I´m right here."

"I´ll leave you two now. Clarisse, come with me." Chiron galloped away, with Clarisse following, the arrow still in her butt.

"Okay Percy. Now concentrate and try not to shot other peoples ass."

"Fine. I´ll try it. But do not have too much hope."

"I never said that." I mumbled, but so that Percy didn´t hear me.

He narrowed his eyes and aimed at the target. The arrow flew through the air and hit the outmost spot of the target.

"That wasn´t so bad." I admitted. "You only have to keep your bow a bit further left, and then you should hit it right." I pushed his arm to the right side, so that the tip of the arrow pointed at the red spot of the target. But as I wanted to let go of Percy´s hand, it didn´t work. I looked down at our hands and saw that we were bound together with pink handcuffs. Percy realized it too and dropped his bow immediately.

"What did you do?" I half – yelled at him.

"I did nothing. How could I?" We crazed the handcuffs in every direction, but nothing worked. I yelled in frustration and stumped my foot at the ground.

"Maybe some stupid joke from the Aphrodite cabin." Percy suggested. "I mean, the handcuffs are pink. No other cabin or god would do that." Then it hit us both.

"Aphrodite!" We yelled in unison.

"Argh, I hate her!" Thunder grumbled at the sky.

"Sorry." I mumbled. "What do we do now?" Percy thought for a while.

"Let´s go to Chiron. Maybe he knows something how we can get free again." We started to walk towards the big house. It was a bit difficult because we were so near. I admit it was a bit uncomfortable. Some campers sniggered as we passed them. As we reached the porch of the big house I saw Chiron playing Binokel with Mr D. _Yeah, so much to ´I haven´t got time now ´ Chiron!_

"Uh, Chiron? We´ve got a problem."

"What is it child?" Percy and I held out our hands so that he could see the handcuffs.

"Oh. How did this happen?" He asked astonished.

"We think it was Aphrodite. Only some stupid joke from her." Percy answered.

"Yes, that explains that the handcuffs are pink." Mr D said without looking up from the game. I looked at him.

"Why can´t you free us from this?" I asked him and held up our hands again. Percy nodded in agreement.

"No. I always find something like that funny."

"But that´s not fair!" Percy demanded and did a step forward. In the process he pulled me with him.

"You are a god. Why can´t you just wave your hand or something and let the handcuffs disappear!" This time Mr D looked up. He had this purple fire in his eyes that means when Percy said something more stupid now he would end up as a dolphin or something like that.

"Watch it, Peter Johnson. You two have to find a way how to get this thing up from you, and I´ll not help you with certain." With that he turned back to the game and pretended like nothing happened.

"But Chiron!" I protested. "How do we want to eat and sleep when we are bound together? We live in separate cabins and eat at separate tables."

"Yes, that´s the problem. I think there´s no other solution than to sit at one table and sleep in one cabin until we find a way to free you two." Percy and I stared at him. That with the eating is not that bad, but sleeping in _one _bed with _Percy_? Unimaginable.

"But that don't- I- we can´t-"Percy stuttered.

"I´m sorry. But there´s no other solution. You may go now." Chiron turned back to his game with Mr D and ignored us. Without another word we left the porch.

_That will be great! _I thought.

**So, yeah. That was the first chapter. Nothing special. I just wanted to write it because I think it´s funny. Please tell me how you found it and if I should continue to write.**


	2. Chapter 2

Percy´s POV

"Do you want to go to the beach?" I asked Annabeth. She shrugged.

"Sure. Why not?" We set off towards the beach. As we passed some other campers they began to laugh, especially the Aphrodite cabin. Annabeth´s siblings from the Athena cabin just glared daggers at me as they saw us bound together.

"I think your siblings don´t like the idea of us being bound together." I whispered Annabeth into her ear.

"Yeah, I think so, too. They don´t like you."

"Thanks." I said, fake – hurt. "But why?"

"They find that I hang out with you too much that´s all."

"Must be inheritance." I mumbled, but of course, Annabeth heard me.

"What do you mean with inheritance? I do like you." I smirked. Annabeth seemed to realize what she said.

"Wait- I didn´t mean that- I-Argh!" She never stuttered. It was funny, but kinda cute. _Wait! Did I just call my best friend cute? Well… she _is _cute._

"I said it´s inheritance because Athena doesn´t like me. So your siblings must have inherited the hatred towards Poseidon and his children from her."

"Yeah, maybe. But I don´t hate you."

"Yes, I know. You like me." I said and sniggered. She punched me in the arm.

"Hey! I might be invincible but it hurts anyway when you punch me."

"Good to know." Annabeth replied and smirked devilishly. We reached the beach and sat down on the warm sand. Together we stared at the ocean for a while. The sea was always so calming to me. After about ten minutes Annabeth broke the awkward silence.

"I hope we find a way soon, because I don´t want to walk around with you like a limpet on me."

"Ha ha. But you are right. We have to find a way. Aphrodite is really getting on my nerves by now." Annabeth´s eyes narrowed.

"You met her before?" _Shit_. I couldn´t tell her now that I met Aphrodite a few years before. I mean, we talked about _her_. I just couldn´t tell her that now. She would know how I felt about her. _How I felt about her? She´s just your best friend! _A voice said in my head. _Come on, Perce. You like her. Just tell her already._ Another voice spoke. I shook my head. I could already hear voices in my head. Then I saw that Annabeth looked at me with a strange expression and realized that I must have looked pretty stupid.

"What´s the matter seaweed brain? Have you met her before or not?"

"Uh, no."

"Okay." She laid back on the sand and closed her eyes. She looked so beautiful in that moment, with the setting sun shining on her blonde her. It seemed to glow now. That was one of the things I liked the most on Annabeth. She never tried to be pretty or beautiful. She didn´t wear make – up or fashion clothes. She wore her regular shorts and camp half – blood t-shirt, her hair tied up into a bun. She was just her normal self and that´s why I loved her. _Loved her? _Argh!

I laid down next to her and looked up at the sky. It had an orange color now. I turned my head so that I was looking at her.

"What?" She asked and turned towards me. I realized our faces were only inches apart and blushed.

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"And what about?"

"That´s none of your business." I shot back, a bit too harsh I realized later. She looked slightly hurt and turned away quickly.

"Okay. You don´t have to tell me. You are right that´s not my business."

"No Annabeth. I´m sorry I didn´t mean it." I sighed and sat up.

"It was just a stressful day."

"It´s okay. But at least you had hit the target."

"And Clarisse´s butt." She began to laugh. Man, I loved her laugh. I looked into her stormy grey eyes and got lost in them, like always. She stopped to laugh and stared back into my green ones. I slowly leaned closer and saw that she did it too and as our lips were about to touch we heard a voice behind us.

"Hey guys the dinner begins now you should-"We turned around and saw Grover who stopped in his tracks as he saw us, almost kissing.

"Uh, yeah, didn´t want to interrupt anything but dinner has started, you should come now." Before he left he said with a big smirk on his face.

"Nice handcuffs." Then he turned around and ran away. We sighed and stood up.

"Let´s go seaweed brain." Together we set off to the dinning pavilion.

**That´s the second chapter. Please write some more reviews. Then I´ll write more.**


	3. Chapter 3

Annabeth´s POV

Grover just _had _to destroy this nice moment. Percy and I were about to kiss and then _he _came and destroyed everything. Argh, I´m going to kill him. But how do I do this? I can´t just go to Grover and punch him for destroying the moment were Percy and I almost kissed. That would be _very _awkward because Percy was then there, too. But I had to admit it was quite nice to have him at my side all the time.

"Uh, Annabeth?" Percy asked me sheepishly.

"Yes?"

"Where do we sit at dinner now?"

"Oh…" I didn´t think about that. Neither did I think about it where we´ll sleep.

"Can we sit at my table and sleep in your cabin?" I suggested. "Because your cabin is empty except for you and I have nine other siblings. And they don´t like you."

"Uh, okay. But I doubt your siblings will accept me at your table." I gave him a worried laugh.

"Yeah, I think so, too, but there is no other solution. They have to accept it."

"Just protect me when they want to kill me."

Percy said and sighed. I laughed. He was just _so _cute. _Wait, did I just call Percy cute?_ Yes, I did. But he was really cute. I had to admit that. Of course not in front of him, but in my head.

Just then we reached the dinning pavilion. The Aphrodite cabin giggled like crazy as they saw us, the Ares cabin roared from laughter and the others just sniggered behind they hands. Except for my siblings, they just glared at me and Percy. As we sat at the Athena table they all moved away from us.

"That´s not allowed Annabeth, you know." Malcolm, my second – in – command said without keeping his eyes off of Percy. I sighed annoyed.

"I know that. But it´s not our fault that Aphrodite did some of her stupid jokes."

Malcolm and the others nodded but still scowled at Percy. I was glad that Mr D didn´t give any comments to us. It was bad enough that the whole camp has to see us tied together.

Percy and I took some food and sacrificed some of it to our godly parent then we walked back to the Athena table and began to eat silently. It was rather difficult, because we could only use one hand. And Percy had meat that he actually had to cut into pieces, but it didn´t work with one hand. So he impaled it with his fork and plugged it into his mouth.

I had to laugh at the sight because it looked really funny. My siblings glared at me and I quickly shut my mouth. I was glad that I had only salad and bread so I only needed one hand. I didn´t want to look so silly like Percy. That would be very embarrassing.

After dinner Chiron cleared his throat and everybody looked at him.

"Like everybody knows today is Friday, so we play capture the flag this evening."

Crap. I thought. It will be very difficult to run around with Percy directly at my side. Particularly the fighting will give us problems.

"But I had to make some changes because of our little… accident." He motioned towards me and Percy. The others laughed quietly.

"The Poseidon cabin will switch sides with the Aphrodite cabin. Those are the teams now: The red team has got the cabins of Dionysus, Apollo, Athena and Poseidon. The blue team has got the cabins of Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes and Demeter."

The campers stood up and walked towards the armory, where our weapons were stowed safely. Percy and I took our armors and walked outside.

"Uh, I think we have to help each other with our armor." I said awkwardly to Percy, who nodded slowly.

"Yeah. Here, let me help you."

He took the armor for me and attached it to my upper body. He came very near and I blushed deeply. I saw that his cheeks were pink, too. He then lashed the straps and the armor fit perfectly.

"Uh, thanks." I murmured and took his armor. I did the same what he did with mine and soon we stood there, ready for the game of capture the flag. Percy looked slightly worried.

"What´s wrong?"

"We are against the Ares cabin. Against _Clarisse_. She is still pretty angry because I shot her into her butt. That will be a very nice game." He said sarcastically.

"Oh… yeah. And I´m bound together with you so when she wants to kill you she will kill me, too."

"Yes. But that´s your problem." I punched him into his shoulder.

"Ouch. Remember what I said earlier?"

"Yes. And now come on, we don´t want to pass the game." I walked towards the other members of our team with Percy following me.

**In the next chapter I´ll describe the game. Please review. I need some more.**


	4. Chapter 4

Percy´s POV

As the members of our red team gathered around in a circle, Malcolm, Annabeth´s half – brother began to speak.

"Okay. We part our team into four smaller groups. One has to protect our flag; the other three have to disperse in the forest."

"I´ll lead the group to the flag." Chad, a son of Apollo said. "The whole Apollo cabin I think. We´ll go through the middle so we can distract the others."

"I´ll take the second group to the flag. We´ll run around the forest and try to get the flag from the right side." Tyler, a small red – nosed son of Dionysus said.

"And my cabin will run to the left side around the forest." Malcolm said at the end.

"And what about us?" I asked stupidly. Everybody looked at me and Annabeth.

"You two will protect our flag because you can´t really run or fight with these handcuffs." A girl from the Athena cabin said. I think her name was Emily.

"Fine." Annabeth grumbled. "But this isn´t much protection. When the other team comes through our groups Percy and I can´t really hold up the whole other team." The others thought about that.

"Yes, you are right." Emily said. "A few campers from the Dionysus cabin and from the Athena cabin will help you, because these two groups must not be that big. That would attract too much attention."

About eight other campers joined Annabeth and me. I think it was way better than alone, who knows what Clarisse will do to us. The horn blew and the game began. Like we composed, our team parted into four other groups and disappeared into the forest. It was almost completely dark in the meantime, so it was a bit difficult to see something.

After about ten minutes from waiting we heard sword clanging and angry shouts from the campers. I didn´t know from which team, but that was not important to me in that moment. Annabeth, the eight other campers and I positioned us in front of our flag. The two of us stood a bit further away from the others so we would have a better view. We waited, and waited and waited, but absolutely _nothing _happened.

"I´m bored." I said to Annabeth who looked annoyed.

"I know Percy. Me too, but we can´t change that now. It´s Aphrodite´s fault that we are freaking bound together!" She nearly screamed and thunder grumbled at the sky.

"I don´t want to get my clothes dirty." I said suddenly. It sounded completely random. Well… it was.

"And that says a boy." Annabeth laughed.

"No, I´m serious. When we get dirty we have to _change _our clothes before we go to bed." Annabeth seemed to realize what I meant and her eyes widened.

"Oh… yeah, you´re right. But we haven´t got much to do here so that isn´t such a big problem."

"I hope so." I mumbled and turned to the others who looked suddenly worried.

"What´s wrong guys?"

"It looks like the group of Chad didn´t make it through. They were stopped by the Ares cabin." An Athena kid said. Then we heard angry shouts and rattling and five Ares kids broke out of the bushes.

"Go! You have to distract the others. We´ll take them." One kid from Dionysus screamed at us. I looked at Annabeth and before I could do anything she pulled me with her. We ran through the forest until our lungs screamed for air, but we didn´t stop.

"What… do we… do now?" Annabeth asked me after about two minutes of running.

I was about to answer but suddenly we lost the ground under our feet and we fell into complete darkness.

**I know this chapter is really short but please review. I promise to make the next chapters longer.**


	5. Chapter 5

Annabeth´s POV

Percy and I just _had _to fall into a freaking hole! And I just _had _to fall on top of Percy!

"Ouch." I said and rubbed my head. But I still laid on top of Percy. I could hear his fast heart beating. Was it because of the running or of me? _He he…_

"Uh Annabeth?" Percy asked sheepishly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you please get off of me? You are a bit heavy with the time."

"Oh, uh, yeah sure." I quickly stood up but was pulled down again by these stupid handcuffs!

"Geez! Why don´t we just stand up together?" I suggested and lifted my body a bit from his own so that I didn´t squash him.

"Yeah, okay. Good idea." I rolled to my side and we stood up together. I brushed the dirt off of my shorts with one hand and looked at Percy. It was difficult to see anything because it was really dark.

"Where are we?" Percy asked and looked around, desperately trying to see something helpful.

"I don´t know." I admitted.

"Ha!" Percy cried suddenly.

"What is it?"

"A daughter of Athena doesn´t knows something! That´s the second time now I heard you say that." I clapped free hand to my forehead at his stupidity.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Yes." He smirked. I punched him in the shoulder.

"Ouch. Geez, Annabeth! Stop that already. That´s annoying."

"You´re always annoying."

"Hey!"

"Just kidding. And now we have to find a way out of here. We can´t go through this whole again." I pointed at the ceiling. There was this damn hole which we fell through and it was about nine feet above us. Now I´m _really _glad I landed on Percy.

"Uh, yeah. You´re right. But maybe we can shout for help?"

"I don´t believe that anyone will hear us. We are very deep in the forest. And the other campers are busy with the game."

"Yes, okay. Now, let´s find a way to get out of here. It´s kind of depressing to be in a dark hole." With that he turned around and pulled me with him.

We walked for ten minutes now. We´ve found a narrow lane and wandered through until our feet hurt. And the worst was that it was getting darker and darker until we stood in complete darkness. For that moment I was glad that I was bound together with Percy, because I had to be sure now that he was right next to me. It reminded me a bit of the Labyrinth a few years ago as Percy and I fell into a hole, too and didn´t know what to do at first.

"Yeah, it´s almost the same." Percy said. At first I didn´t know what he meant until I realized that I had spoken it out aloud.

"Oh, uh yes. And what do we do now? This isn´t the Labyrinth. Well… I hope so, but here isn´t a blue triangle that leads us out of that damn hole or whatever that is!" I slowly began to panic.

"Hey, it´s alright. We´ll find a way out of here. We just go straight forward at the walls so we don´t strike against something okay?" Percy said and laid his free hand on my shoulder. I took a deep breath and nodded. Percy could always comfort me in a way, I liked that.

We took a step forward but just then the walls next to us suddenly began to glow and as I looked clearer I saw that it were flare stacks.

"Wow." I said and stared around. "That was unattended."

"Yeah. What is that?" He pointed down and I saw what he meant. Everywhere was greenish slime on the cool ground.

"Ew!" I said and took a step back. "What´s that?"

"I don´t know." Percy admitted. "It will be the best when we follow the soupcon along the ground, then we´ll probably see what it is."

**I know, this chapter wasn´t very long, too, just like the previous one, but I hadn´t got much time today, so I ended it here. Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

Percy´s POV

Annabeth and I followed the green slime along the soupcon. It was getting more and more. At the end of the soupcon there were four more gangways. Man, I hated it here.

"Are you sure we´re not in the Labyrinth?" I asked Annabeth as I saw the many ways. "It´ looks pretty much like it, don´t you think?" Suddenly Annabeth gasped and grabbed my arm with her free hand.

"Percy! We are in the living space of the giants ants. Remember?" I thought for a moment. Yes, almost two years ago by a game of capture the flag Beckendorf was captured by these ugly giant ants. Silena, Annabeth and me had rescued him with the help of the metal dragon.

"Yes. These ugly things."

"Right."

"And is it bad that we´re here?"

"Of course it is. Their saliva is like acid. It burns very much when you come in touch with it. And they´ve got these sharp claws."

"Oh, yeah, not very good to be here." I said in agreement. I looked at the four gangways again.

"And which gangway do we take now?"

"I don-"Annabeth stopped herself. I think she wanted to say ´I don´t know´ again. "I´m not sure."

"Let´s take the middle way." I suggested and Annabeth nodded.

"Yeah. We have to try. I just want to leave this damn hole!"

"Wow. Annabeth, you´re often swearing in the last time."

"Shut up, seaweed brain."

We took the middle way and walked through it. After a few minutes an awful smell came into our noses.

"Ew, what´s that smell?" Annabeth asked and wrinkled her nose.

"Dunno. But I think we´ll see it soon." Suddenly, we heard noises and saw shadows at the walls.

"We have to get away from here." I said and looked around. There, at the very side of a wall was a little hole. I gestured to it and Annabeth seemed to understand. She ran towards it and slipped in. I followed right after. But it turned out that the little hole had only enough space for one, so I had to lie on top of Annabeth. Man that was embarrassing. I hovered over her that I didn´t squash her.

I couldn´t help but get lost into her beautiful stormy gray eyes, like always. They were shining now, and looking straight back into my green eyes. Suddenly I had the urge to kiss her. Slowly I leaned forward like a few hours ago on the beach.

I could smell her breath. It smelled like fresh apples. I loved it. Our lips were only one millimeter apart, as Annabeth realized what we were about to do and turned her head away. I had to admit I was a bit hurt. But I knew why she didn´t want to kiss me. It was because of Luke, this traitor. She still didn´t overcome his death, I knew it.

"I think they´re gone." She said and wouldn´t meet my eyes in the process.

"Yeah, right."

I stood up and climbed out of the hole with Annabeth following me.

Annabeth´s POV

I wanted to kiss Percy, I really wanted. But in this moment I was scared a bit. What is when I would have done something wrong? And I knew that Percy didn´t like me the way I liked him. Who would anyway? He deserved someone better than me. But as I saw his hurt expression as I turned away, I couldn´t help but feel guilty.

"I think they´re gone." I said, but didn´t meet his eyes.

"Yeah, right." Percy answered, got off of me and climbed out of the hole. I followed right after. It was a bit difficult with the handcuffs and I almost fell down again, but Percy caught me just in time.

"Thanks." I said gratefully.

"Do you see something?" I asked kindly, trying to cheer him up, and it help a little bit.

"No. I think they´re gone now. But they left us this disgusting slime."

He bent down to touch it but I said. "Don´t touch it! This is their saliva."

"I´ve got the Achilles curse, remember?" He said and smiled at me. I was glad that he wasn´t mad. He carefully touched the slime.

"I feel nothing." He declared.

"But I don´t want to try it." I said. Percy laughed his lop – sided grin and I couldn´t help but stare at him. He was just _so _handsome. But like I said before, he would never choose me.

He stood up and sighed.

"Let´s go before the ants come back." With that we set off and walked deeper into the gangway.

**So, yeah. That´s the 6. chapter. Please, I need some more reviews. Then I´ll write more chapters.**


	7. Chapter 7

Percy´s POV

It was getting colder and colder as we walked further into the gangway. It felt like we would go downwards instead upwards. Annabeth shivered next to me.

"Are you sure we´ve taken the right way?" I asked her as she shivered again.

"I don´t think so. But when we turn back the ants will catch us."

We continued to walk. It seemed like the temperature fell with every step we made. And I kept asking myself, _why did we have to fall in this damn hole?_ Suddenly we were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars supported a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

We stood listening to the chill silence. Something is very wrong here.

"What is that?" I whispered to Annabeth who just shook her head.

"I don´t know. I´ve never heard from something like that before. I mean I didn´t know that such a strange chamber or whatever that is determines in camp."

"_When _we are in camp." I muttered and looked around. "Do you think it´s possible that we´re outside of camp?" She shook her head again.

"No. Mortals would have noticed something like that. This must be still in camp somewhere deep in the woods." I sighed annoyed. Why does this always happen to us?

"Great. When we´re able to escape from here we must find a way back to the others." I cried. "The game is over for certain."

"I don´t like it here." Annabeth muttered and took a few steps forward. Together we examined the ground and the walls from the chamber but there was no sign of an exit or something dangerous. As we walked through the chamber I kept my gaze at the ceiling. Well, I thought it was the ceiling. It was so high that you couldn´t see it.

"We must be very deep down in the earth when we can´t see the ceiling." Annabeth said after she looked up. Wow, can she read minds?

"And it´s accordingly cold." She shivered again. When I would have worn a jacket I would have been a gentleman and would have gave it to her, but unfortunately I didn´t wear a jacket. **(A/N: I know this sentence is odd but I wanted to write it and I didn´t know how to devise it else.)**

We were now in the middle of the chamber and had a good few at the things. Well, these things which you could see in the sultry darkness. Only the large stone pillars which sprawled to the ceiling, the thick marble walls and the ground. Not much. I noticed that Annabeth looked at the ground, frowning.

"What´s the matter?" I asked and took a step forward.

"NO!" Annabeth screamed but it was too late. As I stepped on a loose slab it began to waggle. Then a net came from under our feet and we were in it. _Great._ We hung about four feet off the ground and rocked back and forth. Our limps were so tangled I didn´t know which belonged to who. Annabeth glared at me and I gulped.

"Sorry."

"Sorry? I- you- Argh forget it."

We hung a while in silence and swayed back and forth.

"We have to find a way out of here." Annabeth said and began to think. "This position is very uncomfortable." I just nodded and waited for her idea.

"I´ve got it." She said and clicked with her tongue. "Percy, can you reach knife from there?"

"Uh, I´ll try." I moved my arm from behind Annabeth´s back to her waist were her knife was safely stowed in its sheath. With only two fingers I grabbed it and pulled it out.

"Puh, done." I said and held it in my hand.

"And now try to section the ropes."

"Okay." I took the knife and began to slice through the ropes, trying to cut it through. It was hard work with only one hand and tangled together with another person, but at the end I was able to cut through all the ropes and the net degraded and we landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Ouch." Annabeth said and rubbed her butt. I helped her up with my free hand we brushed the dirt from our clothes after I handed her knife back.

"So much to keep our clothes clean." She muttered desperately and looked at me. Oh yeah, I forgot. Our clothes were covered in dirt and slime and our hair was a mess. _Yes, very clean_.

"Let´s go and seek the exit." Annabeth said and began to walk again, pulling me with her. "And keep your eyes down seaweed brain, we don´t want to land in a net again."

"Yes, right." I kept my gaze down, looking for more unstable slabs.

"Percy!" Annabeth said suddenly and squeezed my arm so tight that it felt numb. She pointed at the end of the chamber. There, at the very left side of it was a small hole, which looked like a mini passageway.

"Maybe this is the exit." Annabeth said breathless. Suddenly we heard clicking noises behind us and looked around. Right behind us were about twenty giant ants, which came dangerously close to us.

"Run!" I shouted at Annabeth and we hurtled away in the direction of the exit. Then, beyond the clicking noises we heard another noise. It sounded like someone spat on the ground. I turned around and saw that they were spitting their disgusting saliva at us. Then Annabeth cried out in pain. I looked at her and saw that saliva from the ants hit her. The skin at the spot on her leg looked red and blood trickled out.

"Shit." She said and almost fell to the ground, but I caught her just in time.

"Come on Annabeth. Only a few more steps." I laid my free arm behind her back and supported her that she could walk a bit better. With our last power we jumped into the exit and the entrance grumbled. Suddenly heavy stones fell down and squashed some ants. The entrance was barricaded. I looked up and saw light.

"Come on. We are almost there."

We climbed up and after about five minutes we reached the exit and laid on grass on the ground in the forest. Panting, I said up and began to examine Annabeth´s leg. It looked worse than at the first sight. The skin was a mixture of red and green and blood dripped out of the wound.

"Ouch." Annabeth moaned as I touched her leg carefully.

"Why-"I began but she cut me off.

"The saliva of the giant ants is like acid. It burns your skin away and it _hurt_." She moaned again and fell back into the grass.

"We have to get out of the forest so Chiron can fix your leg." I said and helped her up. She almost fell again but I had a firm grip on her. Together we made our way to the others.

**Well, I´m sorry because of the grammar mistakes, but like I wrote in my other stories I´m living in Germany and I´m learning English for only two years now. So it´s a bit difficult. And this chapter is the longest from this story! Yeah nice… Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Annabeth´s POV

We walked through the dark forest in silence as suddenly an idea popped into my mind.

"Percy? Maybe we could use the saliva of the ants to get rid of these stupid handcuffs." He stopped, but still supported me so I didn´t fell.

"Yeah. That´s a good idea actually. But on your leg isn´t much left." I looked down at my leg.

"Yes. Right. Maybe you can look in the gangway."

"Okay."

Percy laid me down carefully and walked away. I heard rustles from his direction and after two minutes he came back with a hand full of slime. He sat down next to me and we held both our hands with the handcuffs up.

"Please be careful. I don´t want that my hand looks also like my leg."

He nodded and slowly he took the slime and greased it over the handcuffs. We waited and waited, but absolutely nothing happened.

"Why does nothing happen?" Percy asked stupidly.

"I don´t know. Geez. That´s annoying." I said and yelped as Percy helped me up again.

"Sorry."

And we set off again and made our way out of the forest. The whole time my leg hurt like hell. Why did they have to spit at _me_? Couldn´t they just spit at Percy? It wouldn´t have harm him anyway. But I was glad that Percy helped me to walk. I had to admit that it was quite comfortable with his arm around me…_ Wait! What do I think?_ I shook my head in disbelieve and clapped my palm at my forehead. Percy looked at me strangely.

"My head hurts a bit." I lied. He looked satisfied and we continued to walk. The game was over for certain. I wonder who won. Well… we would see it anyway. And this night I had to sleep in the Poseidon cabin. Oh man, my mom really wouldn´t like this. But it wasn´t our fault that Aphrodite _had _to do it with us. And we had to change our clothes. Uh. But Percy, shirtless… yummy. _Again, what do I think?_

"Are you sure you´re okay?" Percy asked and looked worried. He looks so _cute _when he´s worried. I frowned.

"What do you mean? Apart from my leg everything is fine, why?"

"You´d look kinda strange." Oh. Apparently I hadn´t notice that I had an odd expression during my Percy – thoughts. Argh, I had to stop that!

"No. Everything is fine. I was just thinking."

"And what were you thinking?" Percy smirked at me. _Geez, this boy´s annoying_. I blushed.

"You´re blushing!"

"I´m not! And now shut up. My leg hurts and my head, too." Percy grinned.

"Because of me?"

"Yes."

He became quiet. Finally! It was already dark now and we tripped more and more over rots and staves. Then we heard our names called. We looked at each other and tried to move as fast as we could (What wasn´t very fast thanks to my leg) to the font of the voices. We reached our point were the flag was and there were my siblings, who called out our names.

"We´re here." Percy said, still holding me tightly.

"Where were you two, we thought-"Malcolm began, but then he saw my leg.

"Annabeth! What happened?"

"Can we explain later? I can´t walk much longer." He nodded and took the other side of me.

"How ended the game?" Percy asked and looked at Malcolm.

"The other team won. The Ares kids practically overran us and took the flag. We couldn´t do anything. And where were you two?" He raised an eyebrow.

Percy and I told him the story how we fell into that hole and landed in that strange chamber.

"Do you know what´s that for a chamber?" I asked Malcolm at the end.

"No. Never heard from it. We better ask Chiron. Maybe he knows something."

We reached the end of the forest and walked towards the big house.

**So yeah. 8. Chapter. Maybe some more reviews?**


	9. Chapter 9

Percy´s POV

As we entered the big house we saw Chiron and Mr D, who played Binokel _again_.

"Ah, there you are." Chiron said as he saw us. Then he frowned.

"Annabeth, what happened with your leg?"

I told him the story how we fell into that hole and about that mysterious chamber we found at the end. He only nodded and rolled towards us in his wheelchair.

"Come on, dear. We´ll fix your leg now. Lay down on this bed over there." He pointed at the corner of the room. I helped Annabeth on the bed and brought her leg in the right position. She winced.

"Sorry."

"No, it´s okay." I had to bend down all the time because we were bound together. That´s getting on my nerves now. I hope we find a way soon how to get rid of these stupid things. Chiron examined the leg a while. He then took out a drapery and cleaned the wound with water. Annabeth squeezed my fingers so tight that they turned purple.

"Ouch. That hurts."

"I know dear. Acid is very painful. You´re lucky that it were only a few drops." Chiron threw the dirty drapery into the trash bin next to the bed.

"A few drops?" Annabeth shrieked. It sounded very funny and I had to snicker.

"What´s so funny seaweed brain?" She asked and gave me her famous death glare. I chuckled.

"Nothing."

Chiron gave her a piece of Ambrosia and bandaged her leg.

"The next moment you´ll be able to walk without problems again."

"Thanks Chiron."

"Do you know what´s up with this chamber?" I asked Chiron as I helped Annabeth up. He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"No. Maybe some campers years ago have built this chamber. But don´t think so much about it. It´s nothing to worry about. We just have to be careful that no other camper will fall in this hole."

He looked at us and smiled. "And where do you sleep?"

"In my cabin." I said. He nodded.

"I think Poseidon will be not that angry."

"But I´m not so sure about my mother." Annabeth grumbled. _Oh yeah, Athena._

Chiron gave us a pitiful smile and then rolled away from us to Mr D and continued their stupid game. Annabeth and I left the big house and made our way towards the cabins.

"I have to call in my siblings. They don´t know that I sleep with you." She said. I raised an eyebrow. Annabeth´s eyes widened as she realized what she had said.

"Uh, I mean sleep with you in one bed." I tried not to laugh.

"I mean - Argh! You know what I mean."

"Whatever you say wise girl." I smirked as she glared at me. We entered the Athena cabin. I looked around and saw that it looked like three years ago. Annabeth´s siblings stopped their activities as they saw us, especially me.

"Hey guys." Annabeth said loud enough so that everybody could hear her. "I´ll sleep in Percy´s cabin tonight because we still haven´t found a way to destroy these handcuffs."

The others murmured something we couldn´t understand and then glared at me. Annabeth ignored them and dragged me to her dresser. She took out shorts and closed it again.

"Don´t you need something else, like a new shirt?" I asked and looked at her.

"How do we want to take off our shirts when we are bound together?" She said and rolled her grey eyes at me as we left the Athena cabin and headed towards my own. Wow Percy, very clever.

"Yeah, you´re right."

"I`m always right Percy." She smirked at me.

My cabin was empty, like always, except when Tyson comes to camp. I took out one extra sheet and pillow and handed it to Annabeth. We stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do now.

"Uh, don´t we want to sleep now?" Annabeth suggested.

"Yeah, right." I began to unzip my pants and let them fall down. Annabeth reached for the hem of her shorts and pulled them down. _Oh man, she´s got nice legs._ I thought, not realizing that I stared at her super tanned long legs. Hmmm… I had to hold back my laughter as I saw that she wore blue panties with little bears. Annabeth blushed and changed into her other pans quickly.

She laid her pillow on my bed and quickly got under her own sheet. But in the process she pulled me down and I landed with my face on her stomach. I blushed a deep shade of red and quickly moved to my own side. I turned the light out and it was dark now.

"Night seaweed brain." Annabeth said and yawned.

"Night wise girl."

I laid my head back and closed my eyes. I heard Annabeth´s steady breath next to me. She was asleep already. I had to think about what happened in this hole a few hours ago. Where she didn´t want to kiss me. I was sad about that, but I knew I wasn´t somebody who deserved her. She would find a guy who is way better than me. But at the beach it looked like she wanted to, but there we were interrupted by Grover. Argh! Stupid satyr… I was so close. With that thought I fell asleep.

**I know. This chapter wasn´t so good. But please review and tell me what you think.**


	10. Chapter 10

Annabeth´s POV

As I awoke the next morning the first thing I noticed was that I wasn´t in my cabin. Yes, I had to sleep in Percy´s because of our ´problem´. The second thing I noticed was that I laid on top of Percy! Man_, in the last time we do that often._ I thought. I rolled off of him, but I had too much verve and I rolled out of the bed on the cool floor of the Poseidon cabin. Unfortunately I pulled Percy down with me and he landed with a loud thud on top of me. _See what I meant?_

"Ouch!" I cried.

I became no air because Percy was too heavy for me. But he continued to sleep and snorted. I sighed. Typical seaweed brain.

"Wake up!" I screamed into his ear. His head shot up and hit my nose. Great. Now he almost breaks my nose.

"Wazzup?" He asked me and was about to fall asleep again, but I smacked him on the head.

"Ow! Annabeth, what´s the matter?" Then he saw our position and quickly got off of me. I took a deep breath and sat up. My wrists ached because of these stupid things.

"Why are we on the floor?" Percy asked and went a hand through his jet black hair, which stood in all possible directions. He looked so sexy… I shook my head.

"As I woke up I-"I paused. I didn´t want to admit that I slept on top of Percy. That would be too embarrassing. Percy looked at me.

"As I woke up I wanted to turn around but I fell out of the bed and pulled you down with me. Unfortunately you fell on top of me." I stated.

Percy blushed a bit. I noticed that my cheeks were hot too. I looked at my wrist watch and saw that it was eight o´clock already.

"Percy! We have to hurry up or we´ll skip breakfast."

"Okay." He lazily stood up and pulled me with him. We changed into other pants quickly and made our way towards the pavilion. As we approached it we heard someone say:

"Ah, the two lovebirds!"

We turned around and saw that it was Clarisse, who had shouted from the Ares table. Her siblings snickered. I rolled my eyes and sat down with my food, Percy right next to me. We ate in silence and ignored my siblings, who stared at us all the time. Suddenly Percy made a sound that sounded like ´Ah´. I looked at him, slightly confused.

"What´s the matter seaweed brain?" He looked at me knowingly.

"You know that Aphrodite these handcuffs made?" He said. I wanted to answer but he continued. "When she made it then she´ll take it back maybe. When we go to Mt Olympus and talk to her, maybe she would free us from these stupid things. What do you say?" I thought for a while.

"Yeah, that´s actually a good idea."

"And I thought you´re the wise girl."

I glared at him but he only laughed. We finished breakfast and headed towards the arena. As we entered the arena guess who waited there for us already? Athena, my mother. She had her arms folded in front of her chest and stared at us, her grey eyes as cold as ever.

"Uh, hello mom." I greeted her awkwardly.

"Hello Lady Athena." Percy said and bowed quickly.

"Annabeth, I do not approve that you slept in the Poseidon cabin and that _he _eats at the Athena table." She looked at me sternly.

"I know mom. But it´s not our fault. Here." I held up our hands and showed her the handcuffs. She nodded.

"I see. And it was Aphrodite?" Athena´s tone was gentler than before, but still hard.

"Yes." I answered simply. She nodded again and unfolded her arms.

"We are going to go to Mt Olympus to talk to Aphrodite." Percy said. I saw that he was nervous. "We´ll ask her to take these things off." He held up our hands again.

"Well…I´ll leave you two now." With that Athena disappeared. We stared at the spot for a while.

"That was…unexpected." I said.

"Yeah. That was a really short visit. And she didn´t shred me to pieces, that´s good." Percy said. I laughed at his sarcasm.

"Let´s go see Chiron. We have to ask for permission to go to Mt Olympus." We left the Arena and headed towards the big house.

**I know this chapter wasn´t so good, but please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

Percy´s POV

As we approached the big house the only ones we found were Katie and Travis.

"You stole it!" Katie screamed at Travis. He only shook his head and looked innocently at her.

"Why would I need a lawnmower?" He grinned slightly. Katie stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. She looked ready to kill Travis.

"I know that you stole it. And I´ve got enough of your stupid pranks!"

"I swear, I didn´t stole your stupid lawnmower!" Travis held his hands up in surrender but Katie slapped him across the face. Annabeth and I stepped in before something more could happen.

"Hey guys. We don´t want to interrupt something, but do you know where Chiron is?" I asked them. Katie and Travis jerked their heads around and as they saw us, they wore an astonished expression on their faces. Seems like they didn´t notice we were there and watched their little argument.

"He´s at Archery." Travis replied simply and took a step away from Katie. "I´ll come with you two. We don´t want that you two will…err…get lost somewhere." It was pretty obvious that he only wanted to get away from Katie, and I had to admit that it was a horrible excuse.

"Don´t you dare to walk away from me Stoll!" Katie screamed after him, but we already set off to Archery practice. As we were out of earshot Travis sighed in relief.

"She can be pretty scary sometimes. Particularly when she´s mad." I nodded in agreement but Annabeth poked me in the rips.

"Sorry." I mumbled and she looked satisfied.

Five minutes later we reached Archery practice. Chiron was teaching the new demigods how to hold a bow right.

"I bet they are better than me at their first shot."

"I think you´re right." Annabeth said and chuckled. She pointed at one kid who shot and hit the middle of the target. I groaned. Even little kids are better than me at Archery. We saw Chiron who stood next to a kid and helped him to hold his bow right. We walked up to him. Then I noticed that Travis wasn´t with us anymore. I was sure that he was already planning another prank.

"Chiron?" Annabeth asked. He turned around and smiled slightly.

"What is it, children?"

"We wanted to ask for permission to go to Mt Olympus and ask Aphrodite how to get rid of these handcuffs." I answered. Chiron sighed and nodded.

"Yes, that is maybe the only solution. Argus will drive you two to the Empire State building."

"Thanks Chiron."

With that we turned around and left Archery practice. _Aphrodite, here we come. _

**I know this chapter was REALLY short, but I hadn´t got much time. Reviews?**


	12. Chapter 12

Annabeth´s POV

It started to rain as Argus drove us to the Empire State Building. Thick raindrops fell down at the window and consigned loud splashes. Percy shifted uncomfortably next to me and looked a little worried.

"What´s wrong seaweed brain?" At first he didn´t notice that I talked to him, but then he jerked his head around and looked at me.

"Uh, nothing´s wrong. Why?"

"I see you´re lying. What is it?" He sighed and turned his whole body towards me.

"What is when Aphrodite doesn´t want to take off these things?" He held up our hands with the handcuffs and shook them.

"Then we have to kidnap her and beat the crap out of her, after that she´ll take them off for certain." I said sarcastically.

Percy let out a laugh, but it sounded like he choked on something. I sighed and turned my head to the window. From the corner of my left eye I saw that Argus was watching us. It´s quite intimidating when there´s a guy with hundred eyes on his body which were watching you all the time.

The white van stopped in front of the Empire State Building and Argus gestured us to get out of the car. I stepped out and closed the car door behind me, but I forgot that Percy was bound to me so I slammed the door at his head.

"Sorry Percy! I forgot that you have to get out on my side." He grumbled something I couldn´t understand and groaned.

"It´s okay."

We walked up the stairs and entered the dry foyer. I was quite wet because of the rain, and my hair stuck to my head. Percy was completely dry, of course. People gave him weird looks, apparently they wondered why this boy was dry, or they just thought we were freaks because of our little problem, called pink handcuffs. We tried to ignore the stares from the others and marched up to the counter where a bald man sat with an expensive looking tux and round glasses. His nameplate read _Mr Andersen_.

"600. Floor please." I said and waited for this man to look up from his stupid magazine.

"There´s no 600. Floor miss." He replied simply without looking up. Percy slammed his fist on the desk, obviously annoyed.

"Listen Andersen! We have to speak with Aphrodite because she has cursed us with this!" He held up our hands to show the man our problem. The man looked at us exasperatedly, but handed Percy a small key, which I knew would bring us to Olympus.

"Thanks."

We turned around and walked towards the elevator. Luckily nobody was inside so we didn´t need to wait till it was empty. Percy pushed the key into a small hole next to the other buttons and turned it three times. It clicked loudly and then the elevator was blasted upwards.

We fell backwards and had to hold on the walls that we didn´t fell again. Then the elevator stopped abruptly and the door opened with a _cling_! I think I was more often there then every other demigod, because of my re-designs for Olympus. And now it was done. I must admit that I was proud of myself. Percy stared at the buildings in awe. I had to snicker by that.

"Annabeth! That is amazing!" I blushed a bit and smiled warmly.

"Thanks Percy."

"Do you know where Aphrodite´s palace is?" He asked and looked at me, still with big eyes.

"Of course. I designed it! Just follow me."

"There´s no other choice wise girl." He sighed and began to walk.

"Yeah, right." I guided him towards a marble staircase with a golden balustrade. We walked up the stairs and reached a channel, who guided us to Aphrodite´s palace. Percy stared at Olympus like it was the most amazing thing he has ever seen.

"It _is _the most amazing thing I´ve ever seen." He said to me and smirked. Oh. I didn´t realize that I had said that out aloud. I blushed and Percy just laughed.

"Over there." I said and pointed at a building with pink walls, pink trees and flowers and statues of the goddess herself. I think it looked awful, but Aphrodite was ardent. Fortunately Percy didn´t make any comments. We entered the garden and looked into her palace carefully. Nobody was there. Then we heard angry voices behind the building. It sounded like two women who argued. I looked at Percy meaningfully and together we made our way around the palace.

**I know, I haven´t updated for a few days, but I was too lazy. And I´ll only continue to write when I get AT LEAST 5 reviews. Otherwise I´ll not continue.**


	13. Chapter 13

Percy´s POV

The voices grew louder as we walked around the palace. We had to be careful not to squash the pink flowers on the ground. As I looked nearer I saw that the bloom of the flowers were heart – shaped. I looked over to Annabeth.

"I didn´t do that!" She assured and held her free hand up. I laughed silently.

"I thought so."

Everywhere was pink. The trees, the flowers, even the grass had a lucid shade of this damn color. And then the statues of Aphrodite. My eyes already hurt. Annabeth had a painful look on her face, too.

"I could never live here." I said and rubbed my eyes with one hand. "I would go mad."

"You _are _already mad, but you are right. Every sane person would go insane here."

"You´re right-hey!" Annabeth giggled. Wait, since when did Annabeth giggle? I decided to push that thought aside. We had to deal with more important things now.

As we finally reached the other end of the palace we could see two figures a few yards away and it was obvious that they were arguing. We walked slowly towards the figures and with each step their silhouettes became clearer. There were two women.

The first one wore a red strapless dress. It had a low cut and reached to her knees and pointed out her perfect curves. Her brown curls cascaded down her back. I knew it was Aphrodite.

The second woman wore a long green dress which reached to her ankles. She had dark hair, almost black. This goddess held cereal in her left hand and with her right she waved around wildly. I assumed that it was Demeter.

"But Demeter, darling. Look at your garden. The flowers are in every color, except for pink. You definitely should change that. And your palace…it needs more color." Demeter looked ready to explode. Aphrodite smiled.

"Listen here Aphrodite! My palace is none of your business and I decide whenever I change things or not! And now leave me alone, I have to take care of my flowers!" With that the angry goddess stalked away, leaving Aphrodite behind. Annabeth and I stood there, not knowing what to say. Aphrodite turned around and as she saw us her smile widened.

"Ah, my favorite couple!" She exclaimed and ran towards us. We both blushed at her comment.

"I knew you two would come here!" Annabeth and I still didn´t really know what to say. We just stared at Aphrodite (I actually drooled over her because she was the goddess of beauty and REALLY beautiful).

"We wanted to ask if you could free us from these handcuffs. It´s kind of handicapping." Annabeth said and tried to sound friendly. Aphrodite shook her head and laughed a shrill laugh.

"No no no! Why should I do that? You two make such a cute couple." We blushed even more at this comment. I groaned inwardly.

"But why not? It´s so annoying to be bound together with him!" Annabeth almost shouted and gestured towards me. I felt kinda hurt now.

"She´s right Aphrodite!" I objected. "We would do anything, just free us from these handcuffs." Aphrodite thought for a while.

"Well, I´ll free you two, but you have to do something for me." She said then and almost smirked.

"What is it?" Annabeth and I asked eagerly and looked at her with big eyes.

"I´ve lost my cestus a few weeks ago and can´t find it. I think somebody has stolen it. Your duty is to find the cestus and bring it to me. And as quick as possible." I stared at her, dumbfounded.

"What is a Cestus?" I asked. Annabeth sighed next to me.

"It´s not _a _Cestus, it´s _the _Cestus." Annabeth explained. "There´s only one. It was made a few thousand years ago and belongs to Aphrodite." Aphrodite nodded and Annabeth continued. "At first it was a belt, but it became old fashioned and Aphrodite made it to a chain."

"But I still don´t know why this chain is so special." I said.

"The chain makes the owner very attractive."

"Oh." Was all I could say.

"Very well, darling." Aphrodite said to Annabeth and clapped her hands together. "You must find the chain and bring it to me. When you two will fail, you´ll ever be bound together." She cooed happily. I didn´t know what made her that happy.

"But we don´t even know where the chain is." I said desperately.

"It´s somewhere in Las Vegas. I don´t know more. And now go. You two don´t want to waste any time, do you?" With that she disappeared and left a scent of flowers. We stood there, stunned. Then I realized that we weren´t bound together anymore. Annabeth seemed to notice it, too, because she looked happy.

"We´re free!" I exclaimed happily and sounded like a five year old child.

"Yes, but if we don´t find the Cestus, we´ll be bound together again and this time forever." Annabeth said and rubbed her wrist.

"Let´s go now. We have to inform Chiron."

We left Olympus and the Empire State Building and drove with Argus back to camp.

**So yeah, this story will be a bit longer. Please review and tell me what you think.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N for this chapter: Rachel isn´t the oracle here.**

Annabeth´s POV

We got out of the van on top of the hill and thanked Argus. It still rained and the thick raindrops kept falling on my head. Percy was dry again. Of course. Stupid son of Poseidon! After that we walked down the hill, looking for Chiron. _Again_. I was in absolutely _no _mood to go to Las Vegas and search for a stupid chain. I mean, to seek a chain in a whole _city_? That would take years. And we´ve got no hints where to look. Why is it always us? Why? A few years ago I was super excited as I was allowed to go on my first quest, but now? Not anymore.

The second Titan War just ended last summer and now we had to go on a quest again. And Aphrodite said that Percy and I make a cute couple. I blushed at that thought. But maybe it´s true…_Stop thinking about that, Annabeth! _Great. Now I´m talking to myself. I must be very pathetic. I was so deep in thought that I didn´t realize we had approached the big house.

I didn´t look where I was going and suddenly I lost my balance and tripped over the first stair. Percy caught me just in time; otherwise I would have hit my head on the marble. I straightened up and noticed that Percy still had his arms around me. His cheeks tinged pink and he let me go. I noticed the heat in mines, too.

"Thanks." I mumbled and he just shrugged. I rolled my eyes and kept going. He was such a seaweed brain sometimes.

"Chiron is maybe in the meeting room." I said casually, trying to change the subject. Apparently it worked because Percy´s cheeks tinged to their normal pale color and he set off towards the meeting room. I sighed and rolled my eyes again. These awkward moments with Percy were _so_ annoying. But I was glad that we had gotten rid of these stupid handcuffs.

He opened the door for me, obviously trying to be a gentleman. I hold back a giggle and entered the room. To my surprise all the head counselors and Chiron were already there. They all seemed to wait for us. Dionysus sat in a corner and read a vine magazine. As he saw us his little eyes narrowed and he sighed in annoyance.

"Ah, Annie Bell and Peter Johnson. Don´t you think I´m glad that you are here."

Percy and I ignored him and sat down next to each other. I noticed Juniper, who sat in another corner of the room and cried silently. That was odd. Juniper usually didn´t leave the forest, except when it is really necessary. I looked over at Percy, who just shrugged. I looked at the others. There was Clarisse, who had her feet on the table and looked deadly bored, then there were Travis and Connor Stoll.

They just grinned at us mischievous and tried to steal some money from Katie Gardner, who sat next to them. Katie was a daughter of Demeter and she didn´t like the Stolls. Next to Katie sat Will Solace from the Apollo cabin, who healed me last year as I was stabbed into the shoulder.

Then came Jake Mason from the Hephaestus cabin, then Drew from the Aphrodite cabin. Next to Drew sat a guy with dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He had some muscles and tanned skin. Typical playboy. He stared at me and winked, as I looked at him. He didn´t even bother to look away when I caught him checking me out. I got a bit angry and narrowed my eyes. I looked over at Percy and saw that he glared daggers at the guy. I had to smile by that. This guy must be a new camper, who is obviously an Aphrodite child.

"Very well." Chiron began and looked at us. "You two have returned from Olympus and like we see, Aphrodite had freed you." He smiled warmly, but I could see that he was worried about something.

"Well…" I began. I didn´t really know what to say. "Aphrodite has freed us, yes. But we have to do her a favor." Drew snorted and looked away. I ignored her and waited for Chiron to reply. He nodded calmly.

"Go on."

"She said, her Cestus has disappeared a few weeks ago and she can´t find it. So Percy and I have to go to Las Vegas and look for the chain, then bring it back to. When we fail, we´ll be bound together forever."

"And why in _Las Vegas_?" Drew asked and shot me a look.

"Because she said so." I snapped back. I was in no mood now to argue with Drew. She folded her arms in front of her chest and stared at the tale.

"What _is _a Cestus?" Travis asked stupidly. Chiron quickly explained it to the others.

"Seemes like you have to go on a quest again." Clarisse said and took her feet from the table. Chiron nodded.

"What´s up with Juniper?" Percy asked. Chiron looked concerned.

"Grover has disappeared." I gaped at him.

"When?" Chiron shifted uncomfortably in his wheelchair.

"Right after you two were gone to Olympus. Juniper told us that she was with Grover all the time. Then he wanted to go somewhere but didn´t return. We had sent out some campers, but they didn´t find him. They only found that." Chiron handed Percy something. As I looked nearer I recognized it as Grover´s pipes. Juniper cried even harder.

"What do we do now?" I asked Chiron. I hated it when something happened to my friends. I only wanted to help Grover now. But we had to look for the Cestus, too.

"You two will go on a quest to look for the Cestus and for Grover." Chiron said and pointed at us. We nodded.

"And you can take another camper with you."

We looked around. Nobody said anything. Great. They didn´t even want to help us. Then, after a few seconds of silence this blonde guy who had stared at me stood up.

"I´ll go with you." The others gaped at him.

"Jack. You are only two weeks here and you hadn´t had much training. Maybe you should stay at camp." Chiron said. Jack shook his head stubbornly.

"No. I want to go." As he said that, his eyes didn´t left me. Ugh, such a pervert. Chiron sighed heavily and then nodded. Percy still glared at him, only even harder now.

"Well. Then you three have to consult the oracle."

We stood up and left the room. I walked in front of the others, but I felt Jack´s gaze on my back. When he didn´t stop staring soon, then he´ll have to deal with a broken nose. We climbed up the ladder and entered the attic. It looked like last year as I had to get the great prophecy together with Percy. The only difference was that there laid more stuff around than last time. Jack coughed and wrinkled up his nose. I rolled my eyes in annoyance, but kept walking towards the dusty mummy.

"EW, what´s _that_?" Jack asked disgustedly.

"Just shut up now!" Percy hissed at him and turned towards the mummy. We waited and waited, but nothing happened.

"Can we go now?" Jack said and turned around.

"Why does nothing happen?" I asked Percy, but he just shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe this thing is defect?"

"Maybe your brain is defect."

"Hey!" I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm.

"Come on. We have to go and tell Chiron. I dragged him down where Jack already waited. We walked back to the meeting room, where the others waited for us.

"And?" Chiron asked as we took our places.

"There was nothing. No prophecy." I explained. A few others gasped. Chiron looked concerned.

"Ah. Aphrodite doesn´t make things easy for you. I see." I stared at him.

"What? Aphrodite wants that we find her Cestus and now she don´t even want to give us any hints? What´s that for a shit?" A few others stared at me because I cursed, but that didn´t matter to me in that moment.

"And what about Grover? That is a quest." Percy stated. He looked really angry now.

"Apparently the quest for the Cestus and for Grover has a connection. Maybe when you find the chain, then you´ll find Grover." Percy calmed down a bit, but he was still tense.

"Well. Tomorrow you three will leave." With that Chiron rolled away. The others stood up and left the room.

"What do you do now?" Percy asked me as we walked over the grass towards the cabins.

"I´ll take a shower."

"Me too." I noticed that we were still wet and dirty from last night, as we played capture the flag. I left Percy and went into the Athena cabin, where my siblings read a book or did other things. As they saw me they looked surprised, apparently because I wasn´t bound together with seaweed brain anymore. They asked a few questions and I explained them that I had to go on a quest to find the Cestus and Grover.

"How was your night with Percy?" Rose, one of my half-sisters asked and giggled.

Really, she was more of Aphrodite´s child than of Athena´s. No wonder that she was friends with half of the Aphrodite cabin. The others stared at me. I just rolled my eyes and walked into the bathroom. I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the shower. I sighed in content as the hot water poured over me. It just felt _so _good. My thoughts wandered to Percy. He was really angry that Jack stared at me that way. Was it possible that he was _jealous_?

Maybe. After all he wanted to kiss me at capture the flag as we were in this maze. I just hope we´ll find Grover and the Cestus. Juniper looked so broken. And Grover was one of my best friends. We couldn´t leave him there were he was now.

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself with a towel. After that I slipped into a pair of shorts and a tank top and walked out. My siblings already waited for me. I looked at my wrist watch. It was time for dinner now. I lead my siblings out of the cabin to the dinning pavilion, where the most of the other campers already ate. I looked at the Poseidon table and saw Percy, who smiled at me. I smiled back and made my way towards the Athena table. The only thing I could think of was seaweed brain.

**Yeeeeaaaahhh! Another chapter! I´ve made it longer this time, because you wanted. Please review.**


	15. Chapter 15

Percy's POV

The next morning the three of us met at the top of Half Blood hill. We had to get up early, so I was super tired. I usually slept a few hours longer. But I didn't get much sleep last night because I had to think about Grover and the Cestus. What when we didn't find Grover? He was my best friend, next to Annabeth. The Cestus was important, too, but Grover was more important now.

Annabeth and Jack looked as tired as me. Jack looked really grumpy. Maybe it was because he hadn't gotten his _beauty sleep_. I really didn't like this guy. The way he looked at Annabeth, it made me feel…uncomfortable? No, that wasn't the right word. The right word was _jealous_. Yeah, I, Percy Jackson, savior of Olympus felt jealous. I slipped a hand into my pocket and felt my ballpoint pen, Riptide.

Chiron stood next to Annabeth and looked at me meaningfully. I felt a bit uncomfortable. He looked like he wanted to pull some answers out of me. It was scary. I heard a car honk and looked down the hill. There was the white van with Argus, our security man. He really was a strange looking man.

He had eyes all over his body, and every time you're with him at least ten eyes would be watching you. It's really intimidating. I yawned.

"Alright children." Chiron said and turned to the three of us. "Be careful. Just bring Grover and the cestus back."

We nodded and said goodbye to him, then we walked down the hill to Argus, who was waiting for us at the white van.

We loaded our backpacks into the luggage space and got into the car. I made sure that I was next to Annabeth and not this Aphrodite jerk. I saw that his eyes darkened as I sat next to her and he glared at me. I glared back. Annabeth didn't seem to notice this, as she was almost asleep. Her eyes were half closed and she was yawning a lot.

"Didn't sleep much, huh?" I whispered into her ear. She nodded slowly and to my surprise, she laid her head down on my shoulder.

At first I was shocked, but then I saw Jack's expression, I knew it was all worth it. You just _had _to see his face. It was difficult to hold back a snicker, but I managed, and instead just smirked at him.

Annabeth's breathing steadied and I knew she fell asleep. Jack didn't say anything; he just stared out the window angrily.

Two hours later we had left New York, and were driving through open countryside. Annabeth had woken up a few minutes ago and blushed as she realized that she slept on my shoulder. I just grinned at that.

Jack was complaining that this was way too long for him.

"You could walk if you don't want to go by car." I spat at him, and then grinned. He looked at me annoyed, but thankfully didn't say anything.

"Where do you think we have to start?" I asked Annabeth as we passed some trees. She turned away from the window and looked at me. Her big grey eyes stared at me intently. After a while she spoke up.

"We have to take the train. We can't fly because Zeus would blast you out of the sky, and we have to get to Las Vegas as soon as possible."

"Yeah, you're right."

"I'm always right, seaweed brain." She smirked at me and then sat back in her seat.

"Do they have some beds in the train?" Jack asked and turned to Annabeth on purpose.

"I think so." She said kindly and smiled at him. He smiled back and when she looked away he smirked at me. If looks could kill Jack would be dead already.

I just wanted to punch his stupid face and-

"Percy?" Annabeth waved a hand in front of my face. I snapped back into reality and looked at Annabeth.

"Are you okay?" She looked at me worried.

"Uh…yeah, why?"

"You looked like you wanted to kill Jack." _Smart girl…_

"Uh no! How would you think that? I just thought about what I would do to the person who kidnapped Grover," I lied.

Annabeth didn't seem to believe me but she didn't argue.

Jack´s POV

I'll get the girl. Jackson will see. It's totally obvious that she likes me more than this stupid son of Poseidon. He's just so dumb! Okay, I am not the smartest person on earth too, but anyway. I smiled at Annabeth innocently but I was making a plan in my head how I could kill Aqua boy so he would be out of my way…

**Ooooookay. I know long time no updating but school was stupid. Yeah, I know. This chapter was short and Jack is really strange, but he isn't evil or… Please review! I would like to know what you think.**


	16. Chapter 16

Annabeth´s POV

Argus delivered us at some station far away from New York. He handed us our backpacks and drove away. I looked around and saw nothing except for green and yellow cereal fields and trees with fresh apples and plums. Jack groaned and stretched himself.

"Are here any beds? I´m deadly tired." He looked annoyed at me. I rolled my eyes.

"We have to wait for the train. Maybe there are some beds you can use for your beauty sleep." Percy spat and gave him a cold stare.

"And since when do you even _know _which train we have to take?" Jack crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Percy. "And why beauty sleep?" Percy just laughed at him. Man, these two are SO annoying.

"Guys. Can you two please stop now?" I interrupted they little argument and rubbed my temples. "You are giving me a headache."

Jack slumped down on the old wooden bench and rested. I decided I would buy us the tickets for the upcoming train. I made my way towards the little counter where a grumpy looking woman sat. She gave me three tickets and I handed her some money. Not drachmas, of course.

I walked back to the boys and looked over at Percy, who was studying the map of the train right next to the bench. As he saw me looking at him he smiled and waved me to him. I threw my backpack on the bench and walked over to him.

"Do you know which train we have to take?" He asked. I regarded the map intently.

"Hhmm." I put my index finger on the map and went over the many lines.

"I think we should take the train to Denver first. So we just have to change one time. That´s the shortest way to Las Vegas." Percy followed my finger with his eyes.

"Okay. But the drive is pretty long. I mean, _two days _in a train with Jack!" He gave a side glance at Jack, who sat at the bench and tapped his foot impatiently.

"What do you have against Jack?" I asked and lowered my voice so that Jack couldn´t hear us. Percy blushed and looked down.

"I mean…he´s really annoying and…yeah, he´s not very useful on our quest. He just came along because of you." He smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck.

"And why does that annoy you?" I asked innocently.

Percy opened his mouth to answer, but just then Jack cried: "_Finally!"_ and jumped up. I swear I could hear Percy sigh in relief. It doesn´t matter. I would ask him the question again anyway. I jerked my gaze away from Percy and looked behind him. Farther away I could see a red vehicle that came nearer and nearer. As the train arrived in front of us we grabbed our stuff and I handed Percy and Jack a ticket. Then we hopped on and the train set off.

Percy´s POV

The train was full except for one small cabin with only two beds and one couch. Great. Jack walked straight to the bed on the window and threw himself on it. I sighed and sat down on the couch.

"I can sleep on the couch, Percy." Annabeth said and smiled wearily.

"No." I insisted. "I´m the guy. I´ll sleep on the couch and you´ll take the comfortable bed."

Annabeth threw her arms in the air. "Now you make me feel guilty." I smiled.

"Or Jack could sleep on the couch, so you don´t have to worry about me." Annabeth stuck her tongue out and sat down on the other bed.

"Hey! I don´t wanna sleep on this thing!" Jack said and straightened himself up. Annabeth glared at him and he quickly added.

"But I would do it for you." He grinned cockily at her. I swear I´ll punch this guys face when he won´t stop hitting on my best friend. Wait! Why does that bother me? Annabeth was just my friend…

**I know, I haven´t updated for a while, but I would be happy about a few reviews. Criticism is welcomed :) **


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